For Release: Tuesday, November 19, 2013
13-2211-NEW
NEW YORK–NEW JERSEY INFORMATION OFFICE: New York City, N.Y.
Technical information: (646) 264-3600 [email protected] www.bls.gov/regions/new-york-new-jersey
Media contact:
(646) 264-3620
Employment and Wages in New York City - First Quarter 2013
Manhattan's Average Weekly Wage Drops 0.5 Percent
Average weekly wages in New York County, more commonly known as the borough of Manhattan, declined
0.5 percent over the year in the first quarter of 2013, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.
Chief Regional Economist Martin Kohli attributed the decline to lower wages in the professional and
business services sector. Nationally wages increased 0.6 percent over the year. (See chart 1.)
Manhattan’s average weekly wages edged down to $2,448, yet remained the highest among the nation’s
largest counties, those with 75,000 or more jobs. Queens led the remaining New York City boroughs with a
weekly wage of $894, which was 10 percent below the national average of $989.
The largest employment gain among the City’s boroughs was in Staten Island (Richmond County), up 2.8
percent, followed by Bronx and Queens Counties, each up 2.2 percent. (See table 1.) Nationally,
employment grew by 1.6 percent from March 2012 to March 2013. (See chart 2.)
Over-the-year wage changes
Four of the five New York City boroughs registered wage growth that exceeded the national average.
Queens’ 1.7-percent and the Bronx’s 1.2-percent increase ranked 71st and 115th, respectively, among the
nation’s 334 largest counties. Staten Island and Brooklyn (Kings County) followed with 0.9-percent and
0.8-percent gains, ranking among the top half of the nation’s large counties. In contrast, Manhattan ranked
in the bottom quarter of the largest U.S. counties in wage growth.
In Manhattan, four supersectors with 1,000 or more employees reported declines over the year in average
weekly wages—manufacturing (-8.3 percent); professional and business services (-4.4 percent); trade,
transportation, and utilities (-1.3 percent); and other services (-0.2 percent). The largest supersector,
professional and business services, had the largest impact on the borough’s average weekly wage. Four
other supersectors registered wage gains of at least 1.0 percent—construction (1.9 percent), financial
activities (2.3 percent), information (3.3 percent), and education and health (4.4 percent).
Nationally, the largest increase in average weekly wages occurred in information (3.6 percent), followed by
other services (1.5 percent). The largest fall in average weekly wages occurred in professional and business
services (-0.6 percent).
Among the 334 largest U.S. counties, 232 posted gains in average wages over the year; 92 experienced
declines. The largest wage gain occurred in San Mateo, Calif., 14.8 percent. Williamson, Texas, recorded
the largest decline, 13.4 percent.
Average weekly wages
Manhattan’s average weekly wage during the first quarter of 2012 was two and a half times the national
average—$2,448 compared to $989. No other county in New York City had an average weekly wage above
that of the nation. Staten Island and Brooklyn were the lowest-paying boroughs, with average wages below
$800 per week. (See chart 3.)
Within Manhattan, the financial activities supersector had the highest first-quarter average weekly wage,
$7,659. (See table 2.) Information had the next highest average wage ($2,939), followed by professional and
business services ($2,444) and natural resources and mining ($2,201). Leisure and hospitality had the lowest
average wage of the industry supersectors, $791. Wages in every supersector in Manhattan were higher than
their respective national industry averages.
Among the 334 largest counties in the nation, Somerset, N.J., trailed Manhattan with the second highest
average weekly wage, $2,009, followed by Santa Clara, Calif., $1,937. Four of the 10 counties with the
highest wages in the nation were located in the greater New York area (New York, N.Y., Somerset, N.J.,
Fairfield, Conn., Morris, N.J.), while the rest were located in or around the San Francisco area, the
Washington, D.C. area, and the Boston area.
Employment
From March 2012 to March 2013, all five of the counties which make up New York City gained jobs. Staten
Island ranked 57th in employment growth among the nation’s 334 large counties, and Bronx and Queens
both ranked 101st. Employment in Brooklyn and Manhattan rose 1.7 percent. Within Manhattan, among
supersectors with 1,000 or more employees, construction reported the largest employment growth (7.3
percent), and financial activities reported the largest decline (-1.1 percent).
Nationally, employment increased in 282 of the 334 largest U.S. counties from March 2012 to March 2013.
Fort Bend, Texas, posted the largest increase, with a gain of 7.0 percent over the year. Conversely,
employment declined in 46 of the large counties. Sangamon, Ill., had the largest over-the-year percentage
decrease in employment (-2.4 percent).
Additional statistics and other information
Quarterly data for states have been included in this release in table 3. For additional information about
quarterly employment and wages data, please read the Technical Note or visit the QCEW Web site at
www.bls.gov/cew/.
2
Employment and Wages Annual Averages Online, features comprehensive information by detailed industry
on establishments, employment, and wages for the nation and all states. The 2012 edition of this bulletin,
which was published in September 2013, contains selected data produced by Business Employment
Dynamics (BED) on job gains and losses, as well as selected data from the first quarter 2013 version of the
national news release. Tables and additional content from Employment and Wages Annual Bulletin 2012 are
now available online at www.bls.gov/cew/cewbultn12.htm.
Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice
phone: 202-691-5200; TDD message referral phone number: 800-877-8339.
County employment and wage data for the second quarter 2013 are scheduled to be released on
Wednesday, December 18, 2013.
Technical Note
Average weekly wage data by county are compiled under the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages
(QCEW) program, also known as the ES-202 program. The data are derived from summaries of
employment and total pay of workers covered by state and federal unemployment insurance (UI) legislation
and provided by State Workforce Agencies (SWAs). The 9.2 million employer reports cover 132.3 million
full- and part-time workers. The average weekly wage values are calculated by dividing quarterly total
wages by the average of the three monthly employment levels of those covered by UI programs. The result
is then divided by 13, the number of weeks in a quarter. It is to be noted, therefore, that over-the-year wage
changes for geographic areas may reflect shifts in the composition of employment by industry, occupation,
and such other factors as hours of work. Thus, wages may vary among counties, metropolitan areas, or
states for reasons other than changes in the average wage level. Data for all states, Metropolitan Statistical
Areas (MSAs), counties, and the nation are available on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/cew/; however,
data in QCEW press releases have been revised and may not match the data contained on the Bureau's
website.
QCEW data are not designed as a time series. QCEW data are simply the sums of individual establishment
records reflecting the number of establishments that exist in a county or industry at a point in time.
Establishments can move in or out of a county or industry for a number of reasons—some reflecting
economic events, others reflecting administrative changes.
The preliminary QCEW data presented in this release may differ from data released by the individual states
as well as from the data presented on the BLS website. These potential differences result from the states'
continuing receipt, review, and editing of UI data over time. On the other hand, differences between data in
this release and the data found on the BLS website are the result of adjustments made to improve over-theyear comparisons. Specifically, these adjustments account for administrative (noneconomic) changes such
as a correction to a previously reported location or industry classification. Adjusting for these administrative
changes allows users to more accurately assess changes of an economic nature (such as a firm moving from
one county to another or changing its primary economic activity) over a 12-month period. Currently,
adjusted data are available only from BLS press releases.
3
Table 1. Covered (1) employment and wages in the United States, New York State, and five counties of New
York City, first quarter 2013 (2)
Employment
Area
March
2013
(thousands)
Average weekly wage
Percent
change,
March
2012-13 (4)
Average
weekly wage
Percent
change,
first quarter
2012-13 (4)
National
ranking by
level (5)
National
ranking by
percent
change (5)
United States (6)...............................................
132,338.9
1.6
$989
--
0.6
--
New York State............................................
Bronx .......................................................
Kings .......................................................
New York .................................................
Queens ....................................................
Richmond ................................................
8,565.7
240.9
527.5
2,403.9
525.3
93.4
1.0
2.2
1.7
1.7
2.2
2.8
1,362
864
750
2,448
894
784
2
180
296
1
161
265
0.4
1.2
0.8
-0.5
1.7
0.9
37
115
154
269
71
141
Footnotes:
(1) Includes workers covered by Unemployment Insurance (UI) and Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees (UCFE) programs.
(2) Data are preliminary.
(3) Average weekly wages were calculated using unrounded data.
(4) Percent changes were computed from quarterly employment and pay data adjusted for noneconomic county reclassifications.
(5) Ranking does not include data for Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands.
(6) Totals for the United States do not include data for Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands.
4
Table 2. Covered (1) employment and wages in the United States and New York County, first quarter, 2013 (2)
Average weekly wage(3)
Employment
Area
Percent change
March
2012-13(4)
March 2013
(thousands)
Average weekly
wage
Percent change,
first quarter
2012-13(4)
United States(5).............................................................
132,338.9
1.6
$ 989
0.6
Private industry.........................................................
Natural resources and mining ...............................
Construction ..........................................................
Manufacturing........................................................
Trade, transportation, and utilities .........................
Information ............................................................
Financial activities .................................................
Professional and business services ......................
Education and health services ..............................
Leisure and hospitality...........................................
Other services .......................................................
Government..............................................................
New York, NY ...............................................................
Private industry.........................................................
Natural resources and mining ...............................
Construction ..........................................................
Manufacturing........................................................
Trade, transportation, and utilities .........................
Information ............................................................
Financial activities .................................................
Professional and business services ......................
Education and health services ..............................
Leisure and hospitality...........................................
Other services .......................................................
Government..............................................................
110,877.4
1,880.6
5,476.8
11,908.5
25,080.6
2,682.6
7,539.8
18,132.5
20,157.2
13,703.0
4,100.7
21,461.5
2,403.9
1,965.8
0.1
32.7
25.5
251.2
139.5
348.1
494.3
318.0
254.6
93.8
438.1
2.0
1.8
3.4
0.9
1.3
0.1
1.8
2.9
1.9
2.8
0.6
-0.4
1.7
2.0
8.8
7.3
-0.7
1.8
1.1
-1.1
3.0
2.4
1.8
3.3
0.2
995
1,190
979
1,227
819
1,772
1,924
1,288
837
382
620
958
2,448
2,744
2,201
1,674
1,488
1,318
2,939
7,659
2,444
1,175
791
1,040
1,119
0.5
-0.3
0.9
0.1
0.9
3.6
1.1
-0.6
1.2
-0.3
1.5
0.9
-0.5
-0.8
-20.4
1.9
-8.3
-1.3
3.3
2.3
-4.4
4.4
0.1
-0.2
0.5
Footnotes:
(1) Includes workers covered by Unemployment Insurance (UI) and Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees (UCFE) programs.
(2) Data are preliminary.
(3) Average weekly wages were calculated using unrounded data.
(4) Percent changes were computed from quarterly employment and pay data adjusted for noneconomic county reclassifications.
(5) Totals for the United States do not include data for Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands.
5
Table 3. Covered (1) employment and wages by state, first quarter 2013 (2)
Average weekly wage (3)
Employment
State
March
2013
(thousands)
Percent
change,
March
2012-13
Average
weekly wage
Percent
change,
first quarter
2012-13
National
ranking by
level
National
ranking by
percent
change
United States (4)...............................................
132,338.9
1.6
$989
--
0.6
--
Alabama ......................................................
Alaska..........................................................
Arizona ........................................................
Arkansas .....................................................
California .....................................................
Colorado......................................................
Connecticut .................................................
Delaware .....................................................
District of Columbia .....................................
Florida .........................................................
Georgia........................................................
Hawaii..........................................................
Idaho ...........................................................
Illinois ..........................................................
Indiana.........................................................
Iowa .............................................................
Kansas ........................................................
Kentucky......................................................
Louisiana .....................................................
Maine...........................................................
Maryland......................................................
Massachusetts ............................................
Michigan ......................................................
Minnesota....................................................
Mississippi ...................................................
Missouri .......................................................
Montana ......................................................
Nebraska .....................................................
Nevada ........................................................
New Hampshire...........................................
New Jersey..................................................
New Mexico.................................................
New York .....................................................
North Carolina .............................................
North Dakota ...............................................
Ohio .............................................................
Oklahoma ....................................................
Oregon ........................................................
Pennsylvania ...............................................
Rhode Island ...............................................
South Carolina.............................................
South Dakota...............................................
Tennessee ...................................................
Texas ...........................................................
Utah .............................................................
Vermont .......................................................
Virginia.........................................................
Washington..................................................
West Virginia ...............................................
Wisconsin ....................................................
Wyoming .....................................................
Puerto Rico..................................................
1,840.4
317.9
2,494.6
1,151.1
15,168.9
2,298.0
1,618.4
403.7
717.6
7,540.7
3,878.7
616.3
613.4
5,601.4
2,808.1
1,463.2
1,322.0
1,765.2
1,885.8
561.6
2,509.0
3,218.5
3,950.7
2,632.9
1,088.9
2,610.3
427.4
914.9
1,144.1
606.0
3,780.4
784.7
8,565.7
3,934.4
415.0
5,004.8
1,551.3
1,644.4
5,543.3
445.3
1,823.7
394.3
2,675.0
10,928.5
1,233.4
299.3
3,616.8
2,890.8
701.0
2,664.9
272.2
931.3
1.0
0.5
2.2
0.0
3.0
3.0
0.4
1.4
1.0
2.2
1.8
2.4
3.0
0.7
1.1
1.0
0.7
0.9
1.0
0.0
0.8
1.0
2.1
1.9
0.4
0.7
1.9
1.0
2.3
0.7
1.1
0.6
1.0
1.6
4.4
0.7
1.2
1.9
0.1
0.8
1.4
1.0
1.5
3.0
3.3
0.7
0.9
2.3
-0.7
0.9
0.1
0.0
812
988
891
765
1,116
1,004
1,319
1,070
1,613
843
940
842
695
1,058
832
799
807
791
847
771
1,066
1,236
922
1,002
696
842
707
777
844
938
1,234
778
1,362
884
885
884
823
864
968
954
773
709
854
1,015
804
791
1,027
1,028
767
833
859
515
36
15
21
47
6
13
3
7
1
30
18
31
51
9
34
39
37
40
28
45
8
4
20
14
50
31
49
43
29
19
5
42
2
23
22
23
35
25
16
17
44
48
27
12
38
40
11
10
46
33
26
0.5
1.5
0.6
2.4
-0.2
0.1
-0.5
-0.2
0.5
0.7
1.0
1.2
0.6
-0.2
1.2
1.8
0.4
0.8
1.3
1.8
-0.6
0.7
0.3
1.2
1.2
0.6
0.1
1.7
-0.2
1.6
0.6
-0.6
0.4
1.7
3.1
1.1
2.4
0.0
0.9
2.4
1.2
0.9
0.8
0.3
0.6
2.3
0.8
1.8
-0.1
0.8
0.8
-1.2
35
12
30
2
45
41
49
45
35
28
20
14
30
45
14
6
37
23
13
6
50
28
39
14
14
30
41
9
45
11
30
50
37
9
1
19
2
43
21
2
14
21
23
39
30
5
23
6
44
23
23
Note: See footnotes at end of table.
6
(5)
(5)
Table 3. Covered (1) employment and wages by state, first quarter 2013 (2) - Continued
Average weekly wage (3)
Employment
State
Virgin Islands ...............................................
March
2013
(thousands)
Percent
change,
March
2012-13
39.8
-6.7
Average
weekly wage
726
Percent
change,
first quarter
2012-13
National
ranking by
level
(5)
National
ranking by
percent
change
0.4
Footnotes:
(1) Includes workers covered by Unemployment Insurance (UI) and Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees (UCFE) programs.
(2) Data are preliminary.
(3) Average weekly wages were calculated using unrounded data.
(4) Totals for the United States do not include data for Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands.
(5) Data not included in the national ranking.
7
(5)
8